Eaten at McCormick & Schmick's or Mitchell's Fish Market? Your card may have been compromised

MILWAUKEE -- Landry's Inc. and Golden Nugget Hotels and Casinos say customers' credit and debit card information was impacted after criminals were able to install a program on payment card processing devices at restaurants, food and beverage outlets, spas, entertainment destinations and managed properties that fall under the Landrys/Golden Nugget Hotels umbrella. Two restaurants in the Milwaukee area were impacted.

The two restaurants in the Milwaukee area that have been impacted in this case are:

Company officials say the program installed by the criminals was able to search for data from the magnetic strip on payment cards that had been swiped, and obtain data to include the cardholder's name, card number, expiration date and internal verification code.

Locations were affected at different times during one or both of the following periods:

Company officials say enhanced security measures, including end-to-end encryption, have been implemented to prevent a similar issue from occurring in the future.

Officials are working closely with the payment card networks to identify potentially affected cards so that the card issuers can be made aware and initiate heightened monitoring of those accounts.

Customers who are identified as having used their card at an affected location will be mailed a letter or sent an email if the company has a mailing address or email address for those customers.

The investigation in this case began in December 2015 after company officials received a report regarding suspicious activity related to cards that had been used at some of the Landry's Inc. and Golden Nugget Hotels locations.

A leading cyber security firm has been hired by the company to examine payment systems, implement advanced payment processing solutions and working with payment card networks and law enforcement.

If you used a payment card at an affected location during its at-risk window, company officials recommend that you remain vigilant to the possibility of fraud by reviewing your payment card statements for any unauthorized activity.

You should immediately report any unauthorized charges to your card issuer because payment card rules generally provide that cardholders are not responsible for unauthorized charges reported in a timely manner. The phone number to call is usually on the back of your payment card. Please see the section that follows this notice for additional steps you may take to protect your information.

If you have any questions, please call (877) 238-2151 (U.S. and Canada), Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. EST.

MORE INFORMATION ON WAYS TO PROTECT YOURSELF

We recommend that you remain vigilant by reviewing your account statements and credit reports for any unauthorized activity. You may obtain a copy of your credit report, free of charge, once every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies. To order your annual free credit report, please visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call toll free at 1-877-322-8228. Contact information for the three nationwide credit reporting companies is as follows:

Equifax, PO Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374, www.equifax.com, 1-800-525-6285
Experian, PO Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013, www.experian.com,1-888-397-3742
TransUnion, PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022-2000, www.transunion.com, 1-800-916-8800

If you believe you are the victim of identity theft or have reason to believe your personal information has been misused, you should immediately contact the Federal Trade Commission and/or the Attorney General’s office in your state. Contact information for the Federal Trade Commission is as follows:

Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Response Center, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580, 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338), www.ftc.gov/idtheft

You can obtain information from these sources about steps an individual can take to avoid identity theft as well as information about fraud alerts and security freezes. You should also contact your local law enforcement authorities and file a police report. Obtain a copy of the police report in case you are asked to provide copies to creditors to correct your records.